MUNICH—Siemens AG said it struck a turnkey deal with Hutchison 3G Austria GmbH worth “an amount in the multi-digit millions” to plan, set up and supply carrier’s W-CDMA network buildout. In addition, the agreement spells out that Siemens will partially operate the network, providing monitoring and maintenance services for the carrier.
Siemens said Hutchison 3G covers about 98 percent of Austria’s population today and offers W-CDMA services to about 50 percent of the country. Though Siemens offered no time-table for the W-CDMA expansion completion, the German equipment maker did specify that Hutchison 3G plans to cover 95 percent of Austria with HSDPA technology by the end of 2007, though it wasn’t clear whether the HSDPA buildout was part of the contract with Siemens.
“There’s nothing faster or better at present: HSDPA is the accelerator for W-CDMA networks and vital to ensuring that the latest broadband applications run smoothly,” stated Christoph Caselitz, president of Mobile Networks at Siemens Communications.
